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Show MONTAGUE . . . . I Reveals the Inside Story of 'The Captain's Little Lamb" i . lie Was Sittin' in the Parlor Talkin' Pleasant, When in Busts the Door and Through It Comes Jake. By JAMES J. MONTAGUE THERE was a sound as of tapping rather heavy tapping tap-ping on the door of the pilot house. The mate, who from a window was directing, not too gently, gen-tly, the operations of the crew in divesting the boat of a cargo of mutton on the hoof, stopped short a stream of invective he was leveling at members of the crew, and without with-out turning toward me said: "It's Jake, let him in." I opened the door, and a medium sized ram stepped lightly into the place, furled his legs beneath him, and lay down, apparently to pleasant pleas-ant dreams. I restrained my curiosity till the flock was safely stowed somewhere amidships, and we had swung out into the stream. Then I expressed a justifiable curiosity about our visitor. vis-itor. "I'm takin' Jake down to The Dalles to see the captain," he said. "The old man's laid up an' I thought the sight of his little pet might cheer him up. He ain't seen Jake for a long time." I looked at Jake, and wondered won-dered how the captain could be cheered by the sight of such an unprepossessing un-prepossessing animal. Jake was of a dark and untidy brown color, his fleece was in shreds and patches, and he was noisily chewing on what from its appearance, as it now and then emerged half way from his jaws, seemed to be a plug of tobacco. to-bacco. "Yep, he has to have his chaw, Jake does," said the mate, swinging swing-ing around a minute from the wheel and following my glance with his eyes. "It ain't a nice habit but he's got it an' there ain't nothing to do about it If we took his nicotine nico-tine away from him he'd die, an' we got to have him aboard." "To serve to us passengers, I suppose," I said. "Him? You'd have to run him through a sausage grinda before he could be et, an' then you'd dull your teeth on him. His job is to walk on board or ashore when we got a band of sheep to load or unload, un-load, so they'll foller him along. Ain't no other way to load sheep without their scatterin' all over the shore. Come 'ere, Jake, you've about swallered that plug." The dingy animal responded to the call, and received a fresh slab of tobacco, which he rudely snatched from hit benefactor'! hand. "You'd never think to look at the critter," continued the mate, as he braced the wheel to meet a sudden cross current "that he was a lamb once, pretty little white woolly lamb, just overflowin' with affection. affec-tion. He was though. The captain brought him on board to be trained to help with the loadin', an' the pair of 'em took a powerful shine to each other till Jake overdone the friendship business. But I found him the other day on his way to the butcher's, an' give him back his old job, an' now I want the captain to have a sort of reunion with him. The doctor says what the captain needs li to get riled up, an' then he'll be his old self an' get well quicker. He'i sort of peakln' now an' a fit of temper will tort of wake the old flghtin' sperrit in him." I pressed him for further particulars. particu-lars. "Well, when Jake come aboard he was, as I said, a cute little lamb. The captain nussed him on a bottle bot-tle an' kept him in the pilot house an' used to laugh at him leapin' stiff legged around and bring his friends up here to see him. He said he was the cutest little beast he'd ever seen, an' they wasn't no butcher butch-er goin' to get him after he'd served his watches leadin' sheep up the plank. No sir, he'd stay on board just as long as he could work, an' then he'd be put out to a nice pasture pas-ture to spend his old age. "He was cracked about that critter crit-ter for two or three weeks, an' then one day he went ashore an' Jake busted ut of the pen where he was kept an' follered him into town, after aft-er we was tied up at Celilo. The captain he was pleased at first an' showed him off in the saloon where he used to get his bracer, but when he went around to some of the other oth-er places, an' Jake kept right after him folks begin to grin. "The captain h? begin to grin too, at first till somebody says 'Hello Mary,' an' begun to whistle some of the song 'bout the little lamb. He turned into another drinkin' place an' Jake he lay down outside an' waited for him to come out. "After that he didn't have no peace. Jake tagged him back to the boat, an' the captain give orders he was to be tied up, but when we got down to the Cascade locks one of the boys let the sheep loose, an' when the captain come out of the only on-ly saloon in the place, there he was with his legs tucked up under him, waitin'. He give a sort of a happy bleat when he seen the old man an' started to foller him again, but he got a wallop on the snout, an' hopped over a fence, while the captain cap-tain went up to see a gal he was sparkin'. He was settin' in the parlor par-lor talkin' pleasant when in busts the door and through it comes Jake. He gives a blat, walks over to the captain an' tucks his nose over the chair. " 'An then he came to him an' laid His head upon his arm,' says the gal. "The captain got up, grabbed Jake by the scruff of the neck an' hoisted him out of a window. But the gal kept singin' the song, and by and by he got in a huff an' walked out, an' no sooner was the door opened to let him through than up comes Jake caperin' an' dancin' an' full of affection. " 'An' waited patiently about till Mary did appear,' the gal croons. 'Ain't he sweet?' "Well I reckon that skipper never nev-er wanted to slug anything so bad in his life as he did that little sheep, but he was afraid of what the gal might say, so he just walked off, the lamb boundin' along behind him an' reachin' up now an' then to look for some chewin' tobacco. "Of course the story was told all over the place, gals bein' what they are, an' the news went up an' down the river, so pretty soon wherever we tied up, if it was at a town or just a landin' somebody would begin be-gin to whistle 'Mary's Little Lamb' as soon as the skipper come out on deck. The old man would give strict orders to have him tied up below, but always one of the deck hands would let him loose and head him ashore, an' oft he would go. "He seemed to have a scent like a setter dog, for 'everywhere the captain cap-tain went the lamb was sure to go,' just like it was in the song. And the wust came when up at Hood Rivei where the skipper went ashore to see his niece graduate from a high school, the lamb walks right in in the middle of the ceremonies, an' the teacher, smilin,' says, 'He follered fol-lered him to school one day! But don't worry, captain, this teacher won't turn him out' "After that the captain sort of lost his likin' for the little cuss an' hired a farmer to take keer of him, for he couldn't make up his mind to have him turned into mutton. But pretty soon he brought him back an' had him give the job of leadin' the victims vic-tims aboard, till one day he went ashore to get a drink, an' one of the boys let him loose, an' when he come out of the place where he'd got the drink there was a hundred people, I guess, singin' the lamb song in chorus. Then he ordered him killed or thrown ashore in some lonely place, but I sneaked him ofT one day an' sent him to a farmer friend of mine to keep for a while. An' now the captain's sick an' needs a fit of mad to make him feel like himself again, I'm goin' to take Jake in an' show him to him. I think it'll do him a lot of good, don't you?" Dell Syndicate. WNU Service. |